I understand that Pang/Tong have withdrawn from the GP series altogether, but stated they would compete at Worlds. Maybe they're going to focus on their personal lives for a bit? And if the Zhangs are back in fighting form and Sui / Han are improving, then P/T might retire?

I understand that Pang/Tong have withdrawn from the GP series altogether, but stated they would compete at Worlds. Maybe they're going to focus on their personal lives for a bit? And if the Zhangs are back in fighting form and Sui / Han are improving, then P/T might retire?

From the article linked in another thread, I understand that P/T simply need a rest. They were carrying the torch for China last year and were competing in too many events, including the non GP ones. They felt that they didn't get to train adequately and to develop their skills. Now that Z/Z are back and S/H are coming on the scene, they decide to take it easy this year. It's not necessarily a prelude to retirement since one of the reasons for not competing so much this season is to have time to focus on training and improving their skills and performance. It is of course a great time to get married and have some personal life. They earned and deserve the respite. Tong even joked that now they would get to eat. When competing abroad with the other Chinese Pair(s), as the No.2 team, like the midlle child, P/T always let the respected elder S/Z and the younger Z/Z have their fills of the Chinese food prepared for the skaters first, thus often not eating all they would like to have.

East of the Pacific, West of the Atlantic, South of Canada and North of Mexico

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Lots of changes

Caydee Denney and John Coughlin of the US have been added to the pairs roster at Skate Americas
Jessica Dube/Sebastien Wolfe of Canada have been added to the pairs roster at Skate Canada
Ksenia Stolbova/Fedor Klimov or Russia have been added to the pairs roster at the Rostelecom Cup.

Joelle Forte of the US has been added to the ladies roster at Skate America
Adriana Desanctis of Canada has been added to the ladies roster at Skate Canada
Qiuying Zhu of China has been added to the ladies roster at Cup of China
Shoko Ishikawa of Japan has been added to the ladies roster at NHK Trophy.

Armin Mahbanoozadeh of the US had been added to the mens roster at Skate America
Nan Song of China had been added to the mens roster at Cup of China
Tatsuki Machida of Japan has been added to the mens roster at NHK Trophy
Eladj Balde of Canada has been added to the mens roster at Skate Canada
Konstantin Menshov of Russia has been added to the mens roster of Rostelecom Cup.

Isabella Cannuscio/Ian Lorello of the US have been added to the dance roster at Skate America
Tarrah Harvey/Keith Gagnon of Canada have been added to the dance roster at Skate Canada
Ekaterina Pushkash/Jonathan Guerreiro of Russia have been added to the dance roster Rostelecom Cup.
Cathy Reed/Chris Reed of Japan have been added to the dance roster at NHK trophy.

They earned and deserve the respite. Tong even joked that now they would get to eat. When competing abroad with the other Chinese Pair(s), as the No.2 team, like the midlle child, P/T always let the respected elder S/Z and the younger Z/Z have their fills of the Chinese food prepared for the skaters first, thus often not eating all they would like to have.

Wow. That's really interesting.
Do you have a link to the article?
I missed it. Thanks.